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Skilled immigrants (Express Entry)

Skilled immigrants are chosen as permanent residents based on their ability to settle in Canada and take part in our economy. We assess them on their:

English and/or French language skills,

education,

work experience, and

other factors that have been shown to help newcomers prosper in Canada.

As of January 2015, there is a new system to manage how people with skilled work experience apply to immigrate to Canada. It is called Express Entry.

Under Express Entry, people will first fill out an online profile that includes their language test scores, their Educational Credential Assessment (if they need one) and outlines their work experience. There is no cost to complete and submit an Express Entry profile.

Based on their profiles, candidates will be ranked against others in a pool. On a regular basis, CIC will issue invite top candidates from the pool to apply for permanent residence. Only those who get an Invitation to Apply from CIC will be able to apply.

Under this new system, most complete applications will be processed in six months or less.

Our goal is to process most complete applications received under Express Entry in six months or less.

We currently only have processing times for people who applied under the old system.

Processing times tell you how long it took Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) to process applications in the past. Since Express Entry is a new system and not enough applications have been received yet, processing times are not available but we have committed to process applications in six months or less.